


Living Out of Boxes

by LillysoftheValley



Series: Allsorts - A Collection of Assorted GO Ficlets [7]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Character Study, Domestic Fluff, Drabble, Gen, One Shot, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:27:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23579155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LillysoftheValley/pseuds/LillysoftheValley
Summary: Some people find organization very helpful. Others have wardrobes standing empty because all their clothes live on the floor. But sometimes, they just manage to work things out together. Or, Newt is just disorganized enough to be endearing and Anathama is so put-together it's a little bit annoying.
Relationships: Anathema Device & Newton Pulsifer
Series: Allsorts - A Collection of Assorted GO Ficlets [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1650484
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Living Out of Boxes

Tadfield is tiny. Tiny streets, tiny houses, tiny pub. Compared to America, everything about England is tiny and, not to play into stereotype, but Anathema was a little unprepared. After all, she had a lot of boxes.

Like, a _lot_ of boxes.

But they were all neatly labeled, and once she got used to the low lintels and the thin doorways, she found that everything fit quite nicely into the little cottage with the little garden in the little village. It wasn't that long at all before all the space in the cottage was overtaken with her careful organization. To the Them, it may have appeared like a witch's cottage, but rest assured, Anathama had a system and knew exactly where everything was. A bit more cramped than she may have liked, but it served her purposes.

Newt, on the other hand, had one box and everything had just sort of been dumped into it. When he went somewhere new, the box got dumped out again. He never had trouble with boxes, the boxes that everyone was expected to fit into and stay in all their lives. He had sequestered himself in his room, in his dorms, in his flat. He became a master of making the most of a small space. This may have stemmed, however, from the fact that he really didn't have that much stuff. He has learned to keep things simple. Clothes go in one of two piles: clean or dirty. Books go in one pile, biscuits and pot noodle in another. Easy. 

Anathama is appalled. How does he ever find anything? 

Newt doesn't really understand the question. Well, if it's not in one pile, I look in the other. Not that hard, really.

But what if you need something important? How can you go through life with just _one_ box?

Newt reasons that, if something is important, that's the only thing you need, so his box isn't really cluttered with things that _might_ be important _someday_. 

Anathama craves structure. Her whole life has been planned out, but she can never be sure which choices are hers, or Agnes'. Just to be safe, she plans for everything. She buys planners and actually uses them. Her life is scheduled, listed, outlined in piles of notecards and books of prophecy. Therefore, she is hardly ever unprepared. There's a contingency outlined in a binder somewhere and if the universe throws a curveball, she just flips to the appropriate page and follows the steps within. Try me, she says to the impossible, because chances are she has already thought of it. She likes all the facts to fit neatly into the equation and feels uneasy when they don't. 

Newt doesn't make long term plans. Things change too rapidly to bother. Sooner or later he will have to disrupt his whole routine, move on to another box, and start over. Different stuff, same piles. He is adaptable, because even if the world changes around him, he stays the same. So even if the universe decides to dump out all the boxes, it just comes down to sorting. Make piles of things that look like they might go together and before you know it, you find a pattern in the weather reports that makes it very likely that the Antichrist is in Oxfordshire. Strange, that. It's such a tiny place, you would have thought someone would notice.

After everything gets sorted, it is Newt who introduces Anathama to the idea of spontaneity, of surprise. Sometimes a picnic can just be a picnic. And she really doesn't _need_ three separate copies of that book, just on the off chance. Suddenly, Anathama's cottage starts to have slightly fewer boxes in it. And it takes a lot of little steps, but she gets Newt used to the idea of sorting his washing (and putting it all away properly), and the idea that having a plan doesn't have to mean being stuck in a box. He is still not allowed to mess up the careful order of her recipe cards, but she doesn't mind when he makes a mess of the kitchen when they cook together. It's a tiny kitchen, in a tiny cottage in a tiny village, but it fits all their boxes just fine.


End file.
